Guide: How to Help Elderly Out of a Chair

Seniors Sometime Have Trouble Getting Out Of A Chair

Getting or lifting a senior out of a chair is one of the most physically challenging aspects of what I call “hands on caregiving”. It’s challenging for several different reasons having mostly to do with the actual technique used and how the care recipient is positioned.

One of these reasons is that it’s probably the most frequently performed activity done during the day. Helping a person  get out of a sitting position and into standing or transferring them into another sitting position is done when someone is getting off of the bed, off the toilet, out of a car, out of a wheelchair, out of a recliner, off the sofa, and so on. It’s done multiple times a day and can be very hard, not only on the caregiver, but on the care recipient also. Done so often, it becomes tiring.

Another reason is that most caregivers and recipients generally use a poor technique which requires a lot more energy from each of them and can be a little nerve-racking because the care recipient is frequently off balance and out of control.

What Causes Difficulty Getting Up From a Chair

I personally don’t think that “weakness” is the primary reason why most elderly or older persons have difficulty standing up from a chair. While it may have something to do  with it, I think the overall effect is minor.

What I have found is that most people who have trouble in this area simply are “doing it wrong”. They are either sitting in a seat too low, “pushing” in the wrong direction, or basically attempting to do something from the wrong position.

Like a ball on the edge of a hill, if a human body is in the right position, it takes very little strength or force to get things “rolling down hill”, as it were.

So, what’s this “right” position? 

Simply put,: 1. Hips above knees (as much as possible) 2. Ankles to the rear of the perpendicular line of the knees, and 3. Shoulders directly above the knees. 

A person in the above “position” will have the easiest time standing up from a chair with the least amount of effort needed. But note, this doesn’t mean it will be “effortless”. There still may be pain or discomfort, dizziness, or a struggle breathing depending on other underlying health conditions such as arthritis, COPD, or Balance disorder.

In addition, the care recipient and caregiver can make the movement even easier if they make sure that they are “pushing” in the “right direction”. 

Let me explain. 

How many of us have tried to help someone out of a chair only to have them pull us back onto them as we both land back in the chair? I am sure this has happened to you more than you would like. 

In many of these cases, it seems as if our care recipient is working against us. Sometimes deliberately. But I don’t think this is what’s happening in the majority of cases.

What I have realized that people are doing is that they are trying to help stand up, extending both legs with as much effort as they can, but they are pushing back into the chair or pushing straight up (like a rocket taking off). And, because they “feel” like they’re giving it their all and not getting anywhere they think that they’re just too weak to stand up on their own. 

Read this post for even more info: Why the Elderly Struggle to Stand Up From a Chair

In actuality, they are “pushing in the wrong direction” back into the chair, rather than forward away from the chair.

Guide: How to Help Elderly Out of a Chair

How to Help an Elderly Person Get Up From a Chair

When you get a person into the right position, and then have (or help) them exert their effort in the proper direction, you won’t have to lift them,  getting up from a chair will be easy.

This guide will outline steps to reduce the physical demands and anxiety of the movement and how to make it much, much, easier for all involved.

Before we get into the meat of it, there are some things to keep in mind as you’re working on getting an elderly person into or out of a chair:

1. Keep in mind that older persons have been getting into and out chairs for a longer time than most of their caregivers have been alive. They aren’t newborns. They “know” how to do it. But there may be other factors such as pain, anxiety, weakness, and “learned helplessness” that may be at play. They may just need to be given permission or shown an easier way.
2. The caregiver frequently has to “coach” the care recipient through the movements until they are comfortable with the technique and process.
3. Keep in mind, the more of the effort that the care recipient learns to do, the less the caregiver needs to do. It’s in everybody’s interest that, when safely possible, the care recipient is able to get into and out of chairs by themselves.
4. Caregiver’s need to look for the “easiest way” to help someone accomplish the task. I tell them, “Don’t lift. Assist.”

Getting an Older Person Out of a Chair: The Sequence

Step 1. Have the care recipient scoot forward to (or toward) the front edge of the sitting surface (whether a chair, the bed, a commode, etc.). If they have difficulty doing this, you can assist (click here for how to do this).

Step 2. Have the care recipient place hands on the arms of the chair. If a walker is being used, place the “weaker” or their non-dominant hand on the walker and the stronger hand on the arm of the chair.

Step 3. Have or assist them to lean forward (preferably until their shoulders are directly above their knees) looking downward at an angle rather than looking straight ahead.

Step 4. This step is a combination of movements. They need to “push forward with their legs and their hands from the arm of the chair while at the same time lifting their hips off the seat surface.

Step 5. Once “airborne” the care recipient, remaining in a somewhat crouched position, rocks forward on their feet, shifting their weight from their heels to the front of their feet. Important: this weight shift is not on their toes. The foot remains flat on the floor, their weight/momentum is shifted forward rather than backward. This allows them to balance.

Step 6. Once they are balanced, they begin to straighten their bodies to more of an upright posture, looking forward.

That’s how you help an older person out of a chair. 

Now let’s look at how to get them into a chair safely.

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to just fall back into a chair or onto a sofa without much control at all? It happens all the time. And, sometimes people are plopping down on hard surfaces like wooden dining chairs or commode seats (I once knew of someone who actually caused a compression fracture in their lower back because they sat down too hard on a toilet seat).

When I see people doing this, I tell them that they are teaching themselves to fall down. Once gravity has ahold of you, there’s no stopping you until you land and if you’re not in control of the “fall”, then you’re not in control of where you “land”.

Sitting down needs to be more of a deliberate act. It needs to be a choice that their care recipient makes. How fast, the final destination, and how hard a person lands, should all be within their control at all times. 

I say this for a couple of reasons (3 to be exact). Firstly, an elder is less likely to cause an injury if their movements are more deliberate and controlled. Secondly, deliberately practicing something reinforces it and embeds it into the memory and it continues to be something that is more likely to be performed regularly making it habitual. Thirdly, deliberately performing an activity actually keeps the muscles needed to perform that activity toned and strong enough to perform it.

Making it routine will promote greater care recipient independence and relieve the caregiver of more of the work.

How to Help the Elderly Sit Down: The Sequence- steps 1-5  is for those using a walker

Step 1. Approach the chair from the side versus head on.

Step 2. Basically have the CR go slightly past the chair so that the rear legs of the walker are inline with the edge of the chair (this should allow them to be in the optimum position for the next step)

Step 3. Have the CR recipient turn 90 degrees facing away from the chair 

Step 4. If both their legs are not touching the chair tell them “put your feet behind you one at a time” bring both legs/calves, into contact with the chair

Step 5. Have them take a bow lowering their nose toward their walker

Step 6. While still bowed, have them reach back with one hand to the arm (or seat of armless chair) and hold on firmly

Step 7. Have them “bend their knees” while still in the bowed position

Step 8. Lower their hips and “place” them on their chair

Step 9. Once sitting, adjust as needed

There may seem to be many steps to do such a simple task. However, once the steps are memorized, it’ll be as smooth as it ever was. It’s important that the “why” and “how” of the technique be understood by both the CG and CR. It gives the CR more control, and therefore confidence, and it reduces the effort and worry on the part of the CG of their loved one falling or having difficulty with something that they have done all their lives.

And to be fair, there are some chairs or sofas that may be pretty soft and it’s just plain hard to get out of them because you or your loved one doesn’t have a good place to hold onto or push from. If this is the case, read this blog post to learn what you can use to help get an older person to stand up.